Ulster County town supervisors object to giving scrap metal revenue to county

Town supervisors in Ulster County oppose a proposal to shift revenues from the sale of scrap metal to the county, saying it would further strain their budgets.

Town of Ulster Supervisor James Quigley said the Ulster County Association of Town Supervisors and Mayors will ask the county Legislature to rescind a request that the state Legislature include recyclables in regulations governing the flow of trash in Ulster County.

"These revenue sources, if this legislation were to be adopted, would shift from the town to the (Ulster County Resource Recovery Agency), but from the way it would be collected, the towns would continue to incur the cost to maintain the facility to collect them," Quigley said.

Quigley said the town of Ulster's scrap metal revenues amounted to $16,000 in 2011 and $6,000 in 2012; Rochester Supervisor Carl Chipman said his town collected about $10,000 from the sale of scrap metal last year.

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There are 20 towns, three villages and one city in Ulster County.

Quigley said his town's transfer station has probably already seen a reduction in revenue because Millens Recycling, which pays the town for scrap metal, has moved closer to the transfer station.

"We have a piece of land where we tell people to bring in their scrap ... and about every day or two, we push it up into a pile and we call Millens, which bales it up and takes it away," he said.

County lawmakers voted 17-5 in December to enact flow-control rules that require haulers to bring all solid waste collected in the county to the Resource Recovery Agency. The Legislature also voted, 13-8, to ask the state Legislature to change the law to allow recycling materials to be included in flow control regulations.

Ulster County Resource Recovery Agency Executive Director Tim Rose on Wednesday was unable to provide an estimate of revenue scrap metal sales would bring to the agency. He noted that the agency is not equipped to handle scrap metal and would have to hire an outside company to dispose of it.